Latent vulnerability, childhood maltreatment and mental health: advancing theory and practice
This project will help us understand how children who experience abuse adapt to cope with early adverse environments and how these adaptations in turn may be related to risk and resilience for future mental health problems.
This work, using behavioural and brain imaging techniques, will shed light on the nature of ‘latent vulnerability’ – that is, how abuse can embed risk of future mental health problems (McCrory and Vising, 2015).
It will also provide the foundation for a larger scale study to develop a reliable, child-friendly screening tool to identify children at most risk.
Led by: Prof Eamon McCrory, UCL
"We have known for some time that abuse in childhood significantly increases risk of poor mental health across the lifespan. This NSPCC/ESRC funding stream represents a major step forward in advancing our practical understanding of how to identify and best help those children at risk of mental health problems following abuse. Thanks to this investment we should be in a much better position to offset this risk and promote resilient outcomes for those children who most need our help."
Prof Eamon McCrory
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UCL